Chapter Twenty
Defiance
Jennifer was kept busy for the next week trying to get everyone through their items lessons before classes let out for Christmas. The sixth and seventh years, who were a bit ahead of schedule, got a special preview.
"I've decided to go ahead and work in more defense against Dark mental spells next semester. You've already had the basics of these in your fear classes, but I don't feel comfortable letting you older classes go out in the world with just that. So we're going to spend a couple hard weeks on defenses for the Imperius curse, nightmare curses, lunacy curses and manipulation curses.
"Now the first spell I'm going to teach you," Jennifer said, sitting on her desk, "is actually classified as a Light spell, but is also a controlled spell, which, as you all know by now, means it's only legal if it's used for a specific purpose. In fact, this spell was actually banned from use in this school about ten or so years ago, but I had a little talk with Dumbledore who agreed with me that it would be a good idea for you to learn it. It is called the Defiance countercurse, and it was developed about twenty years ago and sanctioned by the Ministry to be used by enforcement officers to fight the effects of mental curses on personnel. Basically, what it does is causes a rise of ego, anger, and willpower in a person, coupled with a physiological rise in adrenaline. The boost is strong and quick, but it gives the victim a much greater chance of fighting off this kind of attack. The benefit to this is that because of how it works, it can be used to countercurse practically any mental spell. Of course, it's still up to the person it's cast upon to use the boost they get to recover themselves; it's not foolproof.
"By now I'm sure you're wondering why this is a controlled spell. Well, this spell can be self-cast, and there was a ring of young folks abusing it, using the spell casually just for the rush. In fact, several students fell into comas and there were even some deaths resulting from this in other places. So, the law now states that you can be prosecuted for using it on yourself for any reason, and the only time anyone can cast it on you legally is for the reason it was intended; to counter a mental curse. Therefore, for the purposes of this class, we're going to be treating this spell under the same rules and regulations as a controlled Dark spell." They all knew that meant casting it without reason meant instant expulsion. "Don't be upset if you can't get this to work off the bat, because this is a pretty strong spell. We'll be practicing it now but we'll also be studying it more thoroughly after you get back. And no, don't worry, we're not having a test on this anytime soon," she grinned. "This is just a class preview."
Several members of the class relaxed perceptibly. Then Jennifer had them line up, pairing them up.
"Now, I'm going to cast the Imperius curse on each of you, and your partner will cast the counterspell. We will be learning how to fight the Imperius Curse on its own next semester, and I will teach you a few methods that I personally have had quite a bit of luck with. All I'm going to do is try to get you to touch your toes, okay? No surprises here. Neville, since you don't have a partner, you can come up here and I'll demonstrate with you." Neville grimaced and walked up as Jennifer cast 'imperio,' immediately leaning over and attempting to touch his toes.
"Defiance!" she intoned, casting at Neville. Neville slowly stood up, his face flustered, glaring at her. She smiled and asked him to head back to his seat. "By they way, if you feel like you hate my guts by the end of class, that's perfectly normal and it'll wear off in a few minutes." Suddenly she heard someone clearing his throat and saw Severus standing in the doorway.
"Why don't I do the Slytherin side?" he suggested calmly. "It'll give them more time to recover before the end of class." Jennifer read his face quite clearly. He didn't want her to be the one to have to cast Imperius on Malfoy and Crabbe.
"Thanks, Professor, I'd appreciate the help," she agreed, smiling at him. He smirked at her and came up to the front of the class.
"Professors, why don't you demonstrate first?" Draco quickly suggested. Jennifer smiled gently at him. Draco had wanted to give Snape a reason to flatten her since school started.
"An interesting idea, but Imperius doesn't normally work on me no matter who casts it, and I seriously doubt I could make it work on Professor Snape. Besides, if it did actually work, we'd all have to deal with him in a bad mood and we don't want that," Jennifer grinned. A few of the other students chuckled nervously until Severus squinted at them. "Yes, Harry?"
"I was just wondering if being a Truth Seeker helps you fight the command spell," he asked.
"That's one of the factors, definitely," Jennifer said with a nod. "Yes, Truth Seekers do have an advantage, most of the time, over mental spells, but not as much as you might think. Will power still has to start the battle, so if you're will isn't strong enough to be able to reason with yourself, it won't matter if you're a Seeker or not. My particular case had to do more with desensitization than anything else." Severus glanced over at her, slightly startled, but then turned thoughtful. "Basically, what that means is that I built up a partial immunity due to over exposure, so it's normally very easy for me to fight. But becoming desensitized on purpose is dangerous and very draining, and nothing that I would ever recommend to anyone. Rather, I think some limited exposure with the spell, like today, and learning spells that can counter it and methods to fight it is a much safer way to go, and is almost as effective. So let's get started, shall we?"
Not very many of the students got it right away, and Jennifer was soon convinced Seamus was never going to get it, or Ron, who was his partner. Harry got it on the first try. Hermione, partnered with Harry, did as well, but Jennifer was keenly aware that Harry was able to fight the Imperius curse before the Defiance spell was even cast. Draco on the Slytherin side seemed to have trouble getting the spell to work for him; Vince seemed to have a bit better luck.
Finally the professors cast Defiance on those left standing and got them all back to their seats, most of the class looking quite grumpy. Jennifer quickly started giving them some reading assignments to keep them busy, barely noticing Severus slipping out of class the moment things were under control. Returning to her desk, Jennifer sighed softly. She really missed him being around all the time.
Snow flurried in the air that Saturday evening, causing the ground to be slippery with ice as Jennifer walked towards Hagrid's Hut. Smoke puffed out of the cottage, and through the window she could see the cheerful lights inside. But the darkening grey sky somehow put a damper on her mood, and she found herself brooding during the quiet walk along the path from the gate. At last she knocked on the door and was greeted warmly, hastily being asked in out of the wet snow.
"Hallo Professor Craw! Good t' see you," Hagrid smiled. Everyone else was already there, even Sirius, who waved at her as she entered, pouring her some tea.
"Hello Professor, come sit down," Hermione said scooting over. "All ready for Christmas?"
"I guess. I am going to miss all of you," Jennifer smiled.
"Well, we'll keep the owls busy this Christmas that's for sure," Sirius winked.
"I can't wait. I've never been wizard skiing before," Harry said.
"Bill took me one year, but I broke both my legs and Mum wouldn't let us go back after that," Ron said. "We're just staying home this year. Dad's getting paranoid with all that's going on."
"You're not going to be breaking anything, I hope," Ginny frowned at Harry.
"No, Ginny, don't worry. I'll be with him," Sirius said cheerfully.
"Ginny, worry," Jennifer smirked. They all chuckled.
"This is the first time I'm going to get to see my home," Hermione said. "It's going to seem pretty strange going to a new house and all."
"Bah, you all get to have fun and I get stuck here on castle patrols and taking care of the creatures," Jennifer grins. "But I'm really glad you all get to have some fun this year."
"Severus will be here, won't he?" Sirius said.
"Oh, Sirius, he hasn't spoken two words to me outside of a classroom since Hogsmeade. Well, I guess even before that, but ever since he turned you into a cockroach, he's been worse. Just what happened after he turned you into a cockroach anyhow?" Jennifer asked. Hagrid and the students looked at Sirius curiously.
"I hadn't been planning on mentioning that to anyone," Sirius frowned at her.
"Snape turned you into a cockroach? What did you turn him into?" Ron wanted to know.
"I didn't turn him into anything. Not that I wasn't tempted for a few moments there," Sirius admitted, "but Dumbledore decided to step in and coerced us into deciding to drop it," he said taking a drink of his tea, looking amused. Everyone was still staring at him. "I think," he added cheerfully, "Severus believes that Jennifer really is seeing me." Jennifer stared at him.
"Surely you and Dumbledore told him that wasn't true," Jennifer frowned.
"We did," Sirius agreed. "But you haven't told him, and I'm not sure he believed us. You know what the rumors have been like around here since last week."
"Severus would have believed Dumbledore." Jennifer decided.
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked with a sly smile. "I think he's blaming himself because he was the one who asked me to keep an eye on you."
The others were watching the interchange with interest, especially Hagrid, who'd been missing a lot of the gossip with all of his recent trips. Jennifer gazed at Sirius for a long, hard moment.
"I think you deserved to be turned into a cockroach." Jennifer said at last.
"Probably," Sirius agreed. "But look at it this way. Now that everyone is so completely convinced that you and I are a couple, there's no reason for the two of you to keep avoiding each other like the plague."
Just then there was a knock at the door and Hagrid peered out the window.
"Tha's weird. Looks like it's the Ministry. Couple o' 'em an' their wands 'er out. Any'un got dibs on who they're lookin' for?" Hagrid asked quietly. Sirius, having had his fair share of arrests, turned into a dog and went under the table while Jennifer slipped behind the door as Hagrid opened it.
"Evenin'. Ca' I help ya?" Hagrid asked.
"We're looking for Sirius Black. We understand he has been visiting here on Saturday evenings. We have a warrant for his arrest."
"You've got to be kidding!" Harry said, jumping up angrily. This can't be happening to him now, not before Christmas holiday! "Wasn't it enough putting him in jail the first time? What is it you think he's done now?"
"Stealing private property, illegally harboring a cursed wand, murder by association, and possibly even being the Ivory Skull," the other one said.
"Wait, wait, wait…" Jennifer came out from behind the door. "Are you trying to tell me that Sirius has my wand?"
"Oh, hello, Professor Craw. Yes, we have it on good authority that he has your wand, sorry to tell you that. We understand that you were getting quite close. But he probably had ulterior motives," said the Enforcer.
"Oh, really? I'm a Truth Seeker, even if I'm not certified, and I'm pretty sure I would figure out if there were any. As you can see, however, he's not here." It was true; Sirius had Disapparated the moment he heard the charge. "I expect you had better be contacting Dumbledore about it, but he's not in the school at the moment. I suggest you try following up in the morning. Can I see who signed the warrant, please?" Reading the scroll, Jennifer groaned loudly. "I should have guessed," she muttered. Ederick Thurspire, an old thorn in her side that tried to arrest her for being a Dark witch last year. She glanced up at Hagrid and said his name, and Hagrid rolled his eyes. "You know, whoever promoted that goof should be blasted."
"Too late. Macnair died last year, if you recall," one of the men said dryly.
Jennifer, who was getting the feeling this was only the beginning of things to come, asked the kids to finish up, hastily walking them to the castle the moment the two officers left.
"Don't worry, Harry. The charge is utterly ridiculous. It won't hurt your trip any," Jennifer reassured him as she ushered them inside. "I'm getting the sneaky suspicion that Audi is behind this, trying to get Sirius out of the way for some reason."
"You sure Snape didn't do it to get even with Sirius?" Ron asked.
"Would you guys stop blaming Snape for everything? Bad enough to hear it from Sirius, let alone…" Jennifer suddenly paused looking down the dark hall. She had seen movement further down, but the movement had been strange somehow, as if the shadow hadn't made sense. "Wait here a moment."
Walking quickly, she took out her wand and crept down the corridor. That was when she saw it again… the shadow of a creature… but it was wrong. It had stopped as if expecting her to discount it, waited awhile, then scurried into a different corridor, passing across her view so quickly she got barely a look at it.
"How in the hell did you get in here?" she snarled, but the rat kept going, scurrying down the darkest route it could find. Jennifer backed up a few steps, before turning her gaze towards the four students who were watching her carefully.
"Harry, get Ron and the girls to your house rooms immediately and stay there. No arguments," Jennifer ordered before taking off after it.
"What was it?" Ginny whispered nervously.
"Something small, I'm not sure," Harry said, "We'd better get moving."
"Harry, you don't think it was a rat, do you?" Ron said as they headed to the stairs. Harry came to a complete stop.
"You had better go on up. I'm going to go get Snape," Harry said. "If that is Pettigrew, she's going to need back up and I don't think I could track them now."
"What if Snape's not in his office?" Hermione asked.
"Just go on up! If you run into any professors, tell them what's going on," Harry said. He broke into a run down the corridor, pelting down the dungeon stairs, sliding into the potion lab, and banging on the door of the office. "Come on, come on, be here!"
"Are you trying to make a dent in my office door?" Snape asked, walking in from behind him and staring at him suspiciously. "And what are you doing out in the hall this late?"
"It's Craw. We came in from Hagrid's and she saw something in one of the back corridors. She told us to go on up but I think she might need help… I think it's Pettigrew. Do you know where they went?" Snape glanced at him briefly before turning around and taking out his watch.
"Stay with me, Potter. I don't want you running around alone if you're right," Snape snapped, striding out the door.
Jennifer bit her lip, wishing she had her Night Shroud. Pettigrew was very hard to follow in rat form, and he seemed to know the back corridors better than she did. She lost sight of him several times, having to use her instincts and the occasional movement of shadow to guide her, until at last she stopped. She knew he'd given her the slip, and she realized just how dangerous trying to go forward would be.
Thinking fast, she turned towards the library, trying to keep her senses alert to anything moving around her. It was after she got to the main corridor that she was certain she was being followed. She paused and walked backwards a few steps to listen, then made a quick dive for the library, ducking behind a large bookshelf and watching the door expectantly. She heard a scampering noise behind her and swiftly turned around. Waiting for a sign of where he was, she couldn't help but think he might have been tailing her a lot closer than she had realized. If so she had been close enough to kill… of course, he was in his animal form at the time, but the thought was still very unnerving. She needed to trigger the library's emergency ward, but not knowing where that rat was would make getting there a problem.
Keeping her breathing calm and quiet despite the tension she was feeling, Jennifer began to make her way to the Restricted Section, pausing at every sound. She was never going to get there without him seeing her, she realized. In the dark he could creep into spaces that she couldn't and see better than she could; in the light, he would be able to see exactly where she was, and she'd have no choice but to fight. The only chance she had was to get to that safety trigger before he had time to cast. Counting to three and taking a breath she broke into a run towards the back of the library, aiming her wand and casting at one of the book towers just as she heard someone come up behind her.
"Verbum-"
"Mortify!"
Jennifer couldn't concentrate to finish the spell, but she just couldn't do it. Once again, she'd failed. She'd let herself down, her family, everyone… don't listen, Jennifer, you don't have to listen… but the voices were too strong, so many weakness, so many fears, she couldn't do anything right, she couldn't even fight off this spell. Some Defense teacher she was, she thought. Her head was swimming, battered with all her failures and the lie of bravery… she collapsed, hearing a chuckling coming from outside her tormented mind.
"So, it seems that Malfoy found the way to destroy you after all. I'm sure he'll be pleased. On your knees, girl. Imperio."
Her mind flashed back to when she was seven when her father casting the Imperius curse on her to teach her to fight it. It went on for months, ten hours a day, to save her from this. She had learned to fight it, but it had never protected her when it had really counted. It couldn't keep her from the imperfections she saw in herself. She felt a second Mortification Curse hit her, and her head pounded. Stripped of her desire to fight, the next time Imperius was cast she found herself kneeling to his feet. Like it mattered. She was doomed to fail and she knew it.
"Good! Good! Splendid! I was hoping I didn't have to kill you, pretty thing. I don't think Voldemort will mind me keeping you alive for a while, at least long enough for us to get Malfoy out of prison and ask a question or two. Stand, pet. When I transform, you will put me in your cloak, leave Hogwarts, and take us to the cabin beyond the tracks. Do it now. And stop crying, someone might notice."
Shaking uncontrollably, she stood, unable to keep herself from drying her cheeks, feeling positively horrible. How could she possibly betray her friends like this? Why wasn't she fighting him? She waited for Wormtail to change again, but just as he slipped into rat form, she heard a loud voice behind her.
"Verbum Garos!"
A streak of pure white light whipped past her and smacked the seal on the book tower, surprising the rat who spun around to look at it. Jennifer looked at the rat in confusion, wondering if she should still pick him up, when suddenly books began to fling off the shelves, pelting the rat from every direction, some of them opening and casting spells at the alarmed rat.
Realizing his peril, Pettigrew bolted but the books followed, coming at him in so many directions that the rat soon found itself backed into a corner, books piling up on the small form. A tall figure ran past her; it was Severus, she realized, as she sobbed tearlessly. He was watching the books pile up on the rat with satisfaction, his wand pointed towards the pile and waiting for him to emerge. What was he going to say when he found out she was helping Pettigrew? But she couldn't help herself; she still had a command to follow. She started moving towards the pile to get the rat.
"Defiance!"
She felt the spell hit her, knew Harry Potter had cast it, and that he was standing behind her. It was then she felt her anger and hatred rise through her entire self at the realization at what Wormtail had just done.
"Potter, grab her wand," Severus snapped, but as Harry tried to pry the wand away, Jennifer fought him off and stormed forward, her wand focused on the pile with fury in her eyes. "Jennifer! No!" Severus said and intercepted her, nearly having to break her arm to get the wand away.
"Give me my wand back, let me kill the bastard!" she yelled, struggling against Severus angrily. "I'll boil his blood for Mortifying me, I swear…" Severus pinned her arms behind her and held her by pushing her up against a bookshelf, patiently putting up with her kicking and screaming.
"You're not getting away unless you plan to kill me first," Severus told her firmly. "You have every reason to want him dead, but I know that if I let you go right now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Harry, keep your wand pointed at that pile and petrify anything that tries to move out of it."
Harry moved cautiously nearer but then noticed something, squinting at the pile.
"It doesn't look as if I'll have to, Professor. I think he got pelted with Memoirs of a Gorgon. He's turned to stone."
Lights came on around them as a flurry of professors rushed in, calling Harry's name as they ran to the pile, asking what happened. They then turned and noticed Severus looking a bit worse for the wear, holding a hysterical Jennifer back.
"What happened here?" Minerva asked, standing behind Harry and taking her wand out, looking to where Harry was pointing at a stone rat.
"Craw saw Pettigrew in the school. I ran and got Snape and we found them here," Harry said. "I always knew these books were dangerous, but I never expected that."
"You need help, Severus? Is she okay?" Filius asked.
"Defiance. It should wear off soon. I'll take care of it," Severus insisted quietly.
"Yes, of course," Minerva said quickly. "Filius, could you stay here and watch Pettigrew? I'm going to go send for Dumbledore and Minister Weasley. Mr. Potter, would you come with me…"
"Potter…" Severus said suddenly, causing Harry to pause as he moved to join Minerva. "I am not quite sure how you knew to come to me, but… on Jennifer's behalf, thank you. And on my own behalf, ten points from Gryffindor for being in the halls after hours," he added, but became distracted when he noticed that Jennifer was starting to calm down.
"Sure, any time," Harry said dryly, then looked up at Minerva McGonagall, who was looking between them with interest.
"I can't wait to hear the whole story tomorrow," Minerva said, leading Harry out of the library.